Here you go, Steven, just like I promised (well, sorta...)! more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:46 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Remember when I said that "I had a post on the back burner until something specific happens?"

Well, it just so happens that the specific something happened tonight: The Librarian and I celebrated her birthday (a little early). Her present? A copy of the first of two live-action movies of the manga/anime smash Death Note. She's a big fan of the book/show, so I knew this would go over well... and it did; she loved it.

So, what about the movie itself? Death Note, for those of you that haven't seen the anime/read the manga, is (at it's core) a police thriller. more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:11 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Dammit. I hate it when a show makes me cry.

If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, this picture isn't a spoiler.

(Update: In comments, able reader Will pointed out that the original picture COULD have been a spoiler... and the second he pointed out how it was, I slapped my forehead in disgust and changed the picture to the one above. I also edited his comment to remove the spoiler in question.... If you want to see what the original picture was, CLICK HERE. Good catch, Will!)

But now for something completely different (includes a small episode spoiler): more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:23 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I would be remiss if I didn't thank Don of "Beware the Kawaii" again. Taking pity on a bandwidth-disabled duck, he has, again, sent a few DVDs up to The Pond.

The original Kanon, KyoAni's Air (including the movies), something called Mahou Shoujou Tai (which I'm weakly familiar with under the name 'Tweeny Witches', from this AMV, where it's used on a monitor screen). Also in the discs are some Ozama Tezuka (remember Astro Boy? That's him...), "Pete's latest infatuation," Manami Straight (which I've seen the 1st episode of, and was pretty turned off by the chibification of everybody under the age of 20), and a metric assload of other things, to boot.

Beware The Kawaii has already been named a member of the Order of the Honorary Duck, and I considered adding an Oak Leaves Cluster to the award, I realized that would just be silly. He's already an Honorary Duck, it can't get any better than that for you non-duckish types!

So again, I thank Don with all of my feathers, and heartily suggest that y'all go over there and read his stuff. He's a pretty darn good photographer, too.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:52 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I didn't want to have to do this. While I freely admit my somewhat twisted enjoyment of the original Ikkitousen series, I really hoped that someone down the line would have realized that... well, it just wasn't good, and that a sequel would be a very, very wrong thing to do.

But the lure of money brought in by the first show (just take a look at all the figures from it that are out there... heck, I even have one) was too strong. And thus, Ikkitousen - Dragon Destiny has been whelped and let loose upon an unsuspecting public.

Maybe they moved away from their tried-and-true style? Could they have possibly turned this into a GOOD series without us being aware of it? more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:28 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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SDB, talking about the upcoming release of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, sez: "Bandai and Kadokawa have decided to compromise by releasing the series both in chronological orderand in broadcast order. The broadcast order version will come out as Special Editions, without dubs. That means that completist fanboys will have to buy the series twice, yielding more revenue."

Well, yes and no. According to Robert, the Supreme Ruler and Usurper of the Anime Corner (does anybody else get a chuckle out of the inflated titles he gives himself in his weekly e-mails?), the "Special Edition" releases will have both the chronological order AND the broadcast order discs in them!

Unfortunately, that DOES mean that you'll have to pay more (and Bandai's releases are on the pricey side to begin with) for the S.E. versions, of course, so it may very well work out to paying the same price as if you bought two discs. But hey, you get a collector's iron-on! *eye-roll*

The broadcast order dvds will be, as noted, without dubs, which is okay with me, since I haven't watched a dub version of a show that's in my collection in *coughcough* years. I just have a problem with the voice acting in dubs, particularly if I've seen the show subbed beforehand.

There HAVE been a few dubbed shows recently that don't drive me screaming for an icepick to insert forcefully into my eardrums: Cowboy Bebop's was particularly good... in fact, I've yet to see the subbed version. Ghost In The Shell: Stand-Alone Complex was decent as well, though I still prefer the subs.

I've heard nothing to make me think that Haruhi will be worthwhile in dubbed form, though Bandai has done some good work in that area before. Go ahead, Bandai, surprise me!

Actually, what really surprises me is that there was a discussion about releasing the episodes in chronological order to begin with. The broadcast order may be a little confusing (particularly in the first, oh, third of the series), but the whole thing tells the storyline in a very smooth arc. By the time you hit the last episode, you've gotten the whole package in a way that keeps you intrigued the whole time.

In contrast, the chronological order gives you the meat of the show ("Melancholy" I thru VI, plus the 'movie') at the very start, and then tacks on seven episodes that, while good in their own right (particularly "Day of Sagittarius"), feel like filler when viewed chronologically.

Put it this way: you could make a fantastic OVA out of the 'meat', lose the other seven episodes, and you'd STILL have a smash hit on your hands.

But in the broadcast version, you learn more about what's happening in Haruhi's World (it's her world, she just lets us live in it), albeit in flashback/forward form... and it makes sense, and it doesn't feel like something's tacked on that way.

My take: KyoAni broadcasted it the way they did for a reason, it worked, and it worked WELL. Why mess with it?

(UPDATE: the original version of this post said that Geneon was the distributor, not Bandai as is the case. This has been changed, and the entire continuity department has been sacked. The management of The Pond regrets the error, and will fully refund the money you paid for this post.)

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:13 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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As the blizzard blew outside last night, I pulled my comfy armchair in front of the computer desk and got caught up with Kanon 2006, watching episodes 17-21 (that's the entire Shiori arc and the beginnings of the Ayu and Natsuki arcs for those of you watching the show).

There are plenty of sites out there covering the show episode by episode, so I'm not going to do it here. Instead, I'm just going to comment about my thoughts and feelings regarding the show.

Maybe I'm just a sap, but this show is really, really managing to yank every emotional string I've got. Be it with the storyline or the visuals, KyoAni seems to have the ability to make me laugh or sob at will, and isn't shy about doing it. As a result, I've fallen head over heels with this series. Even if the story stunk, which it doesn't, I'd like the show because of the visuals. For example, this scene:

This is almost a throwaway shot, just something in passing, but it's stunning. The lighting on that fountain goes through five or six colors, for example, affecting everything around it seamlessly. It's an effect that would have been impossible to animate well a few years ago, but KyoAni uses it to 'set the mood' perfectly in the Shiori arc.
But the entire show looks as good as this scene. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it's the best looking series I've ever seen, bar none.

I never saw the Toei version of the series, nor have I played the game, so I haven't the faintest idea where this is going to end up. Yeah, Makoto, Shiori, and Mai are out of the picture for one reason or another, so they aren't likely to be Yuuichi's final love (too bad, too, in the case of Mai; I have a feeling that I'd never see any ending in the game other than her's). The common wisdom seems to be that Ayu will be the last one standing, but I can't even guess. For once, I'm stumped, and I'm loving it.

The series is FUNNY, too. A lot of it can't be conveyed in pictures (such as the not-incredibly-subtle [but still funny] eye twitching) alas, but it is. Some of the more obvious humor comes from 'Zombie Nayuki', the girl that can't wake up to save her life:

...and Yuuichi's reactions to her. The bulk of the credit would have to go to his voice actor, Tomokazu Sugita, who also did the role of Kyon in Haruhi Suzumiya.

The worst part of this is now that I'm caught up to the most recently aired episode, I won't be able to marathon the new ones. That's gonna kill me. Actually, what's going to kill me is knowing that there won't be a sequel. There CAN'T be, the series ends when it ends.

As a final thought, when Jun and Yuuichi were dancing during Shiori's birthday party, did anybody else expect them to break into Hare Hare Yukai, the ED from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya? Using my mad l33t 5k1llz with Photoshop, I threw this together:

I'm sorry 'bout that.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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So, you're watching an AMV, and you think to yourself "hey, you could do this EXACT SAME VIDEO, using (insert different anime here)." Well, most times, you'd be wrong.

But not with these vids.

The first set of AMVs is Nightmare by Mousepotato. Using "Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums" by A Perfect Circle and Neon Genesis Evangelion, this is a tightly edited, dramatic, almost scary video. Highly rated in my book, it's an excellent AMV.

And because the video takes itself SO seriously (to it's benefit), it's a PERFECT target for parody. That's where Floyd's Nightmare comes in. Using the same song, and the original AMV as a framework, Parodic Productions remakes the viddy using... Azumanga Daioh? And it's ALMOST as technically perfect as the original. Want some examples of how it works? Here's some screencaps: the ones on the left are from Nightmare, on the right is Floyd's Nightmare.

Download 'em both, and prepare to giggle like a schoolgirl.

The other pair I've come across have a similar idea behind them. The original of the two is Mitternacht by Pwolf. Using scenes from three of the best known vampire animes out there (Hellsing, Blood: The Last Vampire, and Vampire Hunter D), and music by E Nomine, this is a neatly done action AMV. And who doesn't like vampires, huh? It's also another AMV that takes itself VERY seriously... and it shows; it won more than a few AMV contests at cons.

Now there comes Mitternacho by FallChild42. It's an attempt to do a shot-by-shot remake of the original using... um... Chobits, Cromartie High School, and (oh look!) Azumanga Daioh. Please note: NONE of these shows have vampires in them. That DOES add a certain level of difficulty to the proceedings, doesn't it?

And while it doesn't entirely succeed in the shot-for-shot thing, it DOES come pretty darn close. And more than a couple of times, it made me laugh out loud. A word of warning, though: to play it, you need a pretty hefty rig, as the file has TWO video streams, the 'vanilla' AMV, and the AMV with the original Mitternacht viddy playing in the corner, so you can compare the two. Neat trick! And a pretty neat vid.

Now, there are others out there, of course. AMV HELL 3: The Motion Picture had a fantastic (but short) clip called Ophoria parodying the legendary Euphoria.

It's a shame it isn't a full vid. Oh, and that too, uses Azumanga Daioh.

I'm noticing a theme here...

Anyway, download 'em, and laugh.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:55 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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"Noodle Fighter Miki" has been licensed, and is going to be released in March. (scroll about halfway down)

(The Duck Sez: Snarky, insulting bit removed. See "Further Update," below.)

Oh, and Hanayuko Maid Team is pretty atrocious, at least through the first few episodes or so. After that, I couldn't take it anymore. Nudity is rampant... which is fine. MORE than fine, actually, but it just didn't much work for me. And it wasn't funny.

FURTHER UPDATE: Upon thinking about it, my "snark" DID come across as much more snarky than I intended, and I can see why he reacted the way he did. Sorry, Steven, I truly didn't mean to insult you, just 'poke' you a bit... seriously. That'll teach me to blog during whilst at work... I might have thought longer about it if I had been at The Pond.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:41 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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So I'm visiting my folks (Momzerduck and Ph.Duck) for lunch, doing laundry, that sort of thing, this afternoon. Normal Saturday stuff, y'know? So I look out the window, and what to my wondering eyes does appear?

A fox, hanging out in the backyard, chasing birds! THIRTY YEARS the Duck family has lived in the Olde Homepond, and never THIS! And we're in the middle of Duckford, nowhere NEAR where a fox should live!

Of course, considering the Kanon '06 kick I've been on recently, I blurt out "Makoto!"... then "Ph.Duck, get your camera!"

He dashes out of the dining room, gets his camera, and hustles (quietly... he's the only person I know who can hustle quietly) onto the back porch, secures the cat (who normally goes berserk at any sign of an interloping animal; not this time... this time he came slinking in with his tail between his legs. He may not have known what he was looking at, but he knew it was WAY out of his league), and leans out the back door to snap the photo.

And an amazing photo it was, too!

Then I got my wings on it:

If an amnesiac girl shows up at my door later, I'll be sure to let you know.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:22 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 What a pretty animal!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 10, 2007 03:23 PM (+rSRq)

2 It really was, too. The photo is amazing in full-size (I reduced it about from 2048x1536) for posting.

You can't see it in the small-size photo, but there's a wound of some sort on the left foreleg, near the 'elbow'. It surely wasn't handicapped by it, though, judging by the way it was jumping and running around the back yard.

If you want a copy of the full-size, lemme know!

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 10, 2007 03:43 PM (GQv1b)

3 MY GOD THAT'S THE BIGGEST FOX EVER! It's bigger than they are! It must be 6-8 feet long! Those 2 need to run!!
And that chair! That chair is huge! It must be like...9 feet tall.




Ahem...
...seriously...
That is a really cool picture.

Posted by: Ken Talton at February 11, 2007 11:20 AM (V5zw/)

4 Well, I DID say it was an amazing photo until I got my wings on it...

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 11, 2007 12:40 PM (86QII)

5 Sunday 2/11/07 6:00 PM
Big fox came back! Stighted standing at the base of the bird feeder looking up for a snack. He is beautiful. We may have to name him now.

Posted by: MomDuck at February 11, 2007 03:19 PM (YadGF)

6 We'll have to be careful with the cats now... probably be a nice lunch for the fox.

By the way, MomDuck: Makoto. On this, I will brook no argument. :-)

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 12, 2007 01:59 AM (YadGF)

7 No argument from me! HuckDuck has been looking out the window all day watching for Makoto. Me,too. I rather missed her today.
I have put out an Edgewater neighborhood alert to see if others have seen the fox, too. We'll see if there are any responses.

Posted by: MomDuck at February 12, 2007 04:54 PM (86QII)

8 The Fox Saga continues. Have received many responses from our neighbors. The fox is a female and was spotted with a kit a few months ago. There must be a family...one of them naps in a yard and enjoys eating grapes! All ducks should be on the lookout!

Posted by: MomDuck at February 15, 2007 06:18 AM (86QII)

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I've just finished Mai's story arc. I feel like I've been put thru a wringer. The whole thing left me stunned beyond belief.

Bravo. Simply... well, maybe not perfect, but about as close to it as I've ever seen in an anime. I laughed:

I cried:

I yelled at the screen in frustration:

And in the end, I cheered:

But I know, because of the way the story of Kanon is structured, that we'll probably never see Mai again. Dammit. THAT'S why this arc wasn't perfect.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:05 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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"Am I getting tired of anime? Or is it just that I can't find anything new to excite me?"

Hang on, Steven! There's help on the way!

*quote from Monty Python's Flying Circus

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:48 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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A half-night, actually. We only got two episodes of CardCaptor Sakura in, due to the weather. It's very, very cold here at The Pond, and at the brother of The Librarian's signifigant other's house, the pipes froze solid, and he has to spend the night at their place. So, she left early (this was something of a surprise to her).

ANYway, we caught two episodes, ep36 ("Sakura and the Snowy New School Term") and ep37 ("Sakura and Tomoyo's Lost Voice"). Both were... interesting. First, there's a new OP and ED, both of which, frankly, stink on ice.

The first episode has Sakura's town under assault by The Snow card, like six or seven feet of snow. Why? Um... no real reason we could tell. BUT The Snow card managed to make Sakura lose a watch that Yukito just gave her ("So you're in 5th grade now..."), which pissed Sakura OFF. Which brought out the greatest quote of the show: "Girls are kinda scary when they're mad."

In the second one, another Clow Card, The Voice, takes a liking to Tomoyo's singing, and steals her voice completely. Meanwhile, Sakura blames herself, and Li Showron is starting to show his... um... feelings towards Sakura. Eventually all is well.

Good stuff, with just enough humor to take some of the angsty edge off the way the show has been heading recently. Plus we discover that you could stack books on Tomoyo's nose.

Good times, good times.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:44 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Others have already posted on this brief OVA, so I won't get too heavy into it, but I will say two things:

1) This is the greatest eight minutes, 54 seconds of anime EVER.

2) I was surprised to see Narue in the show:

The animation is great, the girls are cute, the setup is completely preposterous, Stonehenge is the airfield, how much more perfect could it be? Please, if there is a kami-sama, let there be more Strike Witches.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:27 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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FOR MERITORIOUS SERVICE to The Pond, I hereby bestow upon Don McClane of Beware The Kawaii membership into The Order Of The Honorary Duck , with all the rights and glory that brings unto him.

Don becomes the second member of the Order Of The Honorary Duck, joining only Pixy Misa himself. Recently, the webmaster of Beware The Kawaii became aware of my lack of broadband, and offered to help out by sending along some fansubs on DVD... with NOTHING ASKED IN RETURN! And, lo, he has done so, and I now have some 21 episodes of Simoun to plow through!

Thank you very much, Don! And, as I've offered before, if there's anything I can do in return, just let me know! Until then, this linky and your award will have to do. Everybody go visit!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Dear Dad... more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:35 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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This isn't going to be a comprehensive review of Cars, but more of a "I've enjoyed this film, and here's why you probably will, too" sort of thing.

WARNING: This is going to be awfully graphics intensive, so I'm going to hide them 'beneath the fold,' as they say in the newspaper business... clicky-clicky! more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:17 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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With the holiday hell behind us, The Librarian and I got together to continue Anime Night, and jumped right back into Cardcaptor Sakura. After a false alarm with my pulse (nothing happened, but I freaked a little bit... which is why this report didn't go up on Tuesday night; I spent the night at my folks' place... thanks, Momduck!), we hit the DVDs hard... and are now, officially through the first broadcast season! Woohoooo!!!

...which means we only have 11 more episodes to go before the first story arc concludes. WOW, this is a long series.

I don't know how The Librarian felt about the four episodes (32 thru 35) that we watched, but I for one was kinda disappointed. The last of the bunch, Sakura's Wonderful Christmas was the highlight, but the other three were just... meh. Lots of funny, but the spark seemed to be gone. Hey, it took them 32 episodes to really go flat... most series would KILL to go that long without a clinker.

So, anywho, still enjoying the series... though the MST3K-style riffing didn't happen much last night.

Here's hoping all is better next DVD!

And how are YOU?

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Kintaro Oe. Age 25. Tokyo University Dropout. However, he independently withdrew from law school because he had mastered the entire curriculum.

Since then, he has been changing jobs numerous times, learning about life. Riding his favorite bike, Crescent Moon, he keeps on moving.

And perhaps someday, he may save the anime industry...

...oh, no. I mean, 'even the world.'
--from the ending of Ep 6

Gentle Readers, I bring you the ecchi-est show I've ever seen...

It's hardly a stretch to say that the plot of GoldenBoy is well-used. Young man hits the road, meets people, learns things, and then moves on, leaving those he's interacted with changed for the better.

The hook in this case is that Kintaro Oe, our hero, only seems to end up interacting with smoulderingly hot women. We'll get to them in a moment... first, lets meet Kintaro:

As you can see, the animators weren't afraid to go all over the map when drawing our lad. The upper-left pic, of Kintaro on Crescent Moon, is the usual way he's presented, but the others are not uncommon (save the lower-left, which only is seen in Ep 6... thankfully). As they say, 'SD happens.'

Kintaro is a genius, and I'm not just saying that for his choices in co-stars. The GoldenBoy really IS a 'golden boy.' For example, in Ep 1, he learns how to program computers... using only a "keyboard" that he scribbled on a sheet of paper. Ep 3, he winds up working in a family-owned noodle shop... where he quickly catches onto the art of noodle-making (which is an art... one that's a cast-iron b*tch to get right). Ep 4, he goes from not being able to swim... to being able to keep pace (barely) with an Olympic champion. And Ep 6, he (almost) single-handedly saves an animation company from certain doom. In every case, he's doing things he had NEVER done before... always with a smile, and always with his mantra "study, study, study, study, study...." He's also VERY humble, and most of the people he works with don't realize how brilliant he is until he's gone.

The humor is mostly of the 'cable network' type, blue instead of raunchy, and in a few cases, completely over-the-top (Kintaro has a thing for toilets, for example). There's a lot of humor, but it depends on the viewer if it works for them. In my case, most of it worked pretty well.

I picked up the Essential Anime version of GoldenBoy back when MediaPlay went under (for $9.99! Woo!), and truly didn't expect much more than eye-candy. Instead, I got an engaging story and an interesting character. The first five episodes are all stand-alone, and could be watched in any order without losing anything in the process.

Ep 6, however, ties them all together by bringing all of the people Kintaro helped in one place to help HIM. It doesn't hurt that they all have a soft spot for him... and in a couple of cases, a serious case of the yeehaws for him, too.

Now, lets move onto the fun stuff... need I say that everything from now on is decidedly NSFW? Click below! more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:55 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 And it gave us Chihuahua!, one of the greatest AMVs evar!!!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 30, 2006 01:10 PM (A9tur)

2 Which is where the "Many Faces of Oe" screencaps came from, by the way!

I've said in the past that Chihuahua! is certainly the greatest FIRST amv ever; it'd be in my top 10 or 20 AMVs ever.

I was thinking about mentioning it in the post, but I decided to concentrate on the actual show first. Thanks for bringing it up, Pixy!

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 30, 2006 01:13 PM (0Co69)

3 The way you teased us about it, I was expecting a negative review...

I like the subtitle, Sasurai no obenkyou yarou, or "the wandering studious bastard". Doesn't seem like my kind of show, though; fanservice vehicles demand well-designed female characters, and these look average at best, though I guess the anime studio girl is kinda cute.

Posted by: Andrew F. at December 30, 2006 01:31 PM (aGfYh)

4 Andrew, I was quite surprised by the fact that I liked the show. Oh, don't get me wrong, it's no CardCaptor Sakura. It wouldn't be in my collection except 1) it was deep sale at MediaCircus, and 2) the aforementioned Chihuahua!. I liked the AMV so much, I got the (cheap) series.

I actually DID find the female characters 'well-designed,' (hmmm... must try and use that as a pickup line), particularly the swimmer and the tease. But that's just me.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 30, 2006 06:40 PM (YadGF)

5 Andrew - seriously, watch Chihuahua! It gives you a good idea of what the show is like - and it's great fun.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 31, 2006 01:05 AM (A9tur)

6 Watched!

Enjoyed!

May pick up show sometime in future!

Thanks!

Posted by: Andrew F. at December 31, 2006 08:16 AM (SARav)

7 yep, looks like hentai, but not. haha~. But damn funny.

Posted by: Clazirus at January 01, 2007 02:16 AM (T5pq+)

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The "Just This Side of Hentai" anime post is coming... as soon as I can figure out where Chiyo-chan's DVD player is hiding the screenshot folder.

*grumble grumble grumble*

Update 1226am: Saturday, I swear.

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